Tuesday, July 31, 2012

I have something very exciting to (finally) tell you about! There is a new knitting convention coming to our part of the world, and it is called Knit Fit. This auspicious event will be held the weekend of November 3 & 4 in Seattle. If you are nearby or if you've always wanted to visit or return to Seattle, this is a great time to be there.

Why am I particularly excited about this? Because I am teaching a class called Beginner Pattern Writing at Knit Fit. Yea! Here is a little interview with me on the Knit Fit blog (for chuckles). Scroll around and you'll see other instructors interviewed there, too. Interesting reading!

Here is the Web site for the event. Here are the class info pages. Lee Meredith is teaching a class called Self Publishing your own Knitting Patterns and Andrea Rangel is teaching Elements of Hand Knitting Design at this event. With my class and these two classes you could be armed with great tools for becoming a professional knitwear designer--all in just one weekend. Of course there will be many other fun technique and project classes and lots of great vendors from whom you can shop for fibery goodness.

If you think this is just the thing for you, check out the information and be ready tomorrow at noon when the registration goes live! I hope to see you there...maybe in my class?

2. I have a fear of peeing in outhouses (with their black hole where surely lives a heinous, nasty monster), despite having gone to many singings ("sangins") and dinners-on-the-ground in Alabama and Georgia with my grandparents when I was a child, and those always came with outhouses.
Seems like I would have gotten past this.

3. I once performed a scene from The Sound of Music as Maria--the one with the nuns singing "How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria?"

4. I have always thought of myself as a bit of a flibbertigibbet and a clown. Typecasting?

5. I once rode a camel in Israel.

Thanks again to Judi--this was fun!
I'll be back next week--that will be enough of a break from blogging, I'm sure.
Have a good weekend!

Friday, July 20, 2012

So much sock knitting lately! I strung 'em up to check my own progress. New samples knit this summer are second from left and the five on the right! Gee whiz. Well, the red one is a cheat, because it's only one sock, so I'm off to finish its companion now.

Note: first and third from left were knit by Shirley and Beth, respectively.

I'll have more to say about all this later. For now, I wish you a pleasant weekend.

Friday, July 13, 2012

It's been almost all socks all the time around here lately. These Zigzag Lace Socks are the fourth pair in a row I've knitted this summer. As I told you last week, I am reknitting many of the Figheadh sock designs for photography and as it happens, to re-edit them. This Zigzag pattern was one of the first patterns I published back in 2005, so it needed a refresh. It wasn't wrong...it just wasn't good. If you've knitted from many patterns, you know that there's a lot of leeway between a correct pattern and good pattern. This one is now a good one. I can't wait to get the update posted!

Monday, July 09, 2012

We left on the morning of July 4th for a nice four-day camping trip near the North Cascades.

Here are some of my Instagram pics of our little adventure.

Working on a sample of the Zigzag Socks on the way

(the yarn is Sundara Sock in South Seas--a skein given to me by a friend about four years ago and finally being knit up)

After setting up the tent in our nicely wooded site...

...we found a big, beautiful meadow for a walk and great views of the foothills of the North Cascades.

The weather was gorgeous for us the whole time.

Second day camping we went for a hike up the east bank of Baker Lake, which included a view of Mt Baker, of course!

The hike was through very lush, ferny forest with huge trees and lots of old growth.

Back at camp I worked on the Zigzag a bit and we tried to ward off mosquitoes. At one point we had three coils burning, a couple of citronella candles burning, and we were both sprayed down with repellent. I still have lots of bites. It's been since moving here from the South ten years ago that I've had mosquito bites.

I still hate it!

This lovely camping trip, which was only slightly marred by the bugs, was at Rasar State Park here in WA state. I recommend this park very highly. It's very well maintained, safe and secure, and has tent camping sites and hookup sites for campers and motor homes and even some walk-ins. There are tons of little trails, some of which lead down along the Skagit River. It's a good place to camp with kids, too. We saw lots of them having a blast.

When we returned home our snow pea vines had been busy!

And we had received this present from the grandtwins for our birthdays.

We had such a good time. I hope your fourth was good and that your weekend went well.

I just couldn't show you, because none of them fit our Junebug Days colors. Why am I sitting around reknitting my own sock patterns? Well, first it started out as a photography project. My daughter Natalie is helping me freshen up the photos of all the Figheadh Sock designs. We're actually shooting them on real people--both socks, ya know, a pair, like we normally wear them. I'll admit to having knit a bunch of onesies when the patterns were originally released because it was just faster.

This reknitting project is not only lots of fun, because of working with such beautiful yarn, but I have also reworked every single pattern I've knit from. That means new pattern updates, so if any of you have bought any of the Figheadh sock patterns on Ravelry you will be receiving PDF updates soon (just one good reason to join Ravelry and to buy your patterns there). The patterns will have better (much better!) pictures and they'll make a lot more sense, too.

Tuesday, July 03, 2012

Guess what happened a few weeks ago--the best kind of happenstance. As I researched the winner of Teal week's Junebug challenge to get in touch with her and find out where to send her goody box, I found out that she not only lives right here in the same town as I do, but that she is a yarn dyer! On top of all of that, she is a newbie knitter who has taken to it like an otter to water. Why that particular analogy?

I got to meet Cat in person and we had a very fun talk, during which I also got to visit with a bunch of her yarn. She brought all of her colors so I could pick one, and of course, I picked a lovely teal, the above Schrodinger's Cat, which is a new colorway and named with her husband in mind (story here). Then what do you think she did? She gave me a twofer! I had mentioned loving her Riverlands, and the next thing I knew, it was coming home with me too. Thank you, Cat!

But wait a minute, the picture above doesn't quite convey the tealness...

That's a little better. But even better yet, go to Cat's site and see her pictures--they show the colors perfectly!

I just had to wind the Riverlands up and see how it would knit up, so I started a toe-up sock.

Yes, I am knitting this sock on the patio...what gave me away?

I also have a serendipitous thing to tell you about the Schrodinger's Cat skein, but that has to wait for another post. For now, I'm going back to knit more of that Riverlands sock--super fun!

Monday, July 02, 2012

I started this series in May of last year, put it on hold after the first post, and then picked it back up at the first of this year. With this post, I will run out of My Favorite Things lyrics, so that's a good time to put the series to rest. I hope you've enjoyed this, because I have!

One more round of favorite things...get ready, because this one's long!

Love WWOO--the books, the movie, all!

Guinness on tap at our local pub

my avocado plant grown from a seed

nasturtiums

and, of course, figs!

This blog is called Figknits because of the Gaelic Figheadh (knitting, weaving) which is also the name of one of my pattern lines, and it fits also because I happen to really like figs. As a child I enjoyed figs from my Nana's trees and there were always delicious fig preserves around at both grandparents', usually served with warm buttermilk biscuits and butter--another of my favorites. I would have that every day for breakfast if I could escape the threat of sure pudginess. Note the redundancy of butterfat. Good thing I love healthy breakfasts just as much, huh?

Sunday, July 01, 2012

I have a confession to make. You know the Junebug Days event we just celebrated?

See any coincidences here?

Yeah, you see all the Junebug Days 2012 colors right here in this painting by Tracy Karlstid-Anders (a present to my husband from his friend) which hangs in our kitchen. This funky teal-blue bartender man was the culprit behind the whole thing, and I didn't even realize it until about the middle of the month! I had been so focused on the whole thing--writing the posts, playing with the colors, etc.--that I didn't even see what was right in front of my face the whole time. This guy made me pick those colors.